Deep Six: A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Spy Thriller

by John Fletcher, Freddie Lees (Narrator), John Abineri (Narrator)

A six-part radio spy thriller about an ex-SAS agent framed for murder and on the run.

Terry Prince is an ex-SAS professional occasionally hired by the Secret Services to do special 'jobs'. His latest mission seems straightforward enough: find and retrieve a top secret file, belonging to the Department of Internal Security, that has been leaked to a left-wing magazine.

Arriving at the offices of Socialist Attack, he discovers the editor dead - and he himself suspected of murder. Falsely accused, he goes on the run from both the Internal Security Department and gangsters from London’s underworld.

But Terry’s cover is blown, and he soon finds himself blackmailed by a mysterious organisation that threatens to turn him in unless he works for them. Heading to a remote country mansion in Oxford with his instructions, he prepares to do battle with whatever forces await him....

Created by John Fletcher, whose writing credits include Bergerac, this gripping serial stars Freddie Lees as Terry, with John Abineri, Hubert Rees and Madeleine Cemm.

Audible Audio

Published October 22, 2020

About the author

John Fletcher is a Neoplatonist and an anarcho-syndicalist. Over the course of his life he has been many things, including a construction worker, a shepherd, a white van driver, a gravedigger, a steelworker, a cleaner, a teacher, a broadcast journalist, and a writer. Wuhan is his first novel.

He has also written a large number of plays and dramatizations for radio and TV.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how I feel about this one. On one hand, it's pretty entertaining political thriller, but on the other hand, it's a bit clumsy in its telling. I think it's the foundation of this story that harms the telling of it. The hero is Terry Prince and the poet soldier angle felt a little forced and he was somewhat childlike in places. The mid-80's politics jars somewhat as the leftist and conservative perspectives come over as outdated now. Finally, the villain's reasoning is so histrionic and outdated that it's hard to believe. I think it's mid-80's setting that harms this story. Trying to make social commentary on Thatcher era Britain 35yrs after the fact feels obsolete. I think the story would've worked better with a contemporary setting. Still, it's worth a listen.

[Isca Silurum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drivel really but fills up a few hours.

Bigger issue is BBC editing original broadcast.

If the past is continually "edited", where does it end?

[Stephen Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snobs get it! That made my day.